Chapter 638 – Techniques of a Shadow Dancer

Splendid Temple’s forces hadn’t even caught up yet, when Nie Yan’s silhouette blurred into action.

Emerging behind the Dark Puppet Lord, he leaped into the air and executed a rising whirlwind kick.

Nie Yen was so fast he left behind a trail of after-images. His kick was as swift as lightning, impossible to react to, and brimmed with incomparable destructive power.

BANG! Nie Yan’s foot struck the Dark Puppet Lord.

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The Dark Puppet Lord staggered several steps forward. Letting out a furious roar, it swung around. It then smashed down with its enormous fist on Nie Yan.

Just as Nie Yan was about to be flattened into a meat patty, his figured blurred as he vanished into thin air. The Dark Puppet Lord missed Nie Yan and struck the ground below, leaving behind a large crater. It appeared bewildered at the sudden disappearance of its target.

At this moment, the invisible Nie Yan circled behind the Dark Puppet Lord’s and struck forth with Backbreaker.

KRRAK! Zennarde’s Sword pierced into its back.

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“Damn. This big lug has really high defense!” Nie Yan cried out in slight surprise. However, he didn’t pause his onslaught of attacks.

No matter how the Dark Puppet Lord flailed around and swung its fists, it couldn’t land a single hit on Nie Yan. He was simply too fast.

Nie Yan gradually entered the zone. From his point of view, the Dark Puppet Lord’s attacks were as slow as a turtle. It was child’s play for him to evade out of the way and dish back some damage in retaliation.

The Dark Puppet Lord fully aggroed onto Nie Yan. It let out a furious roar, wildly throwing punches and stomping around. It had just locked onto him with its arm winding up for a punch, when Nie Yan suddenly vanished like a puff of smoke yet again. One versus one, a Level 100 Variant Lord was actually completely helpless against him.

At this moment, Splendid Star along with his forces finally arrived. Seeing the scene in the main square, his eyes widened in disbelief. Not only was Nie Yan taking on the Dark Puppet Lord alone, but he was completely dominating it! How was this even possible!?

Splendid Temple’s players couldn’t keep up with Nie Yan’s movements. All they saw was a blur darting all over the place, like the flickering neon lights of a bar. He was strangely captivating.

Nie Yan’s silhouette flickered around the Dark Puppet Lord as though he were performing an elegant dance.

“T-t-this is a Shadow Dancer.”

The players from Splendid Temple were completely shaken. Nie Yan was showing them what the words Shadow Dancer truly signified.

“I never knew attacks could be so beautiful…”

At this very moment, everyone including Splendid Star felt a deep sense of reverence for Nie Yan.

The Mad Rogue really did live up to his legend.

Even though Nie Yan was fighting solo, he could still easily take down the Dark Puppet Lord. This was the absolute strength of a Master Class!

Splendid Star’s heart swelled with anticipation. If the pinnacle class for Thieves was this strong, then what about the pinnacle class for Warriors?

「Don’t just stand there. Have your Mages start dealing damage. Also, tell your Warriors not to bother coming over,」Nie Yan said to Splendid Star in voice chat.

Splendid Star snapped out of his daze. He was here to help Nie Yan deal with the Dark Puppet Lord. He hurriedly ordered his Mages to get into position.

Splendid Temple’s players were fairly quick on the uptake. The Mages rapidly spread out and surrounded the Dark Puppet Lord. They waved their staffs, unleashing a hail of spells into the air which ruthlessly bombarded its body. BANG! BANG! BANG!

Most of the Mages were only dealing around 500 damage, with the stronger ones among them hitting as high as 1,000 damage. Meanwhile, Nie Yan’s attacks were dealing 5,000–6,000 damage, occasionally even critting for up to 20,000 damage. The difference was like night and day.

Seeing this, Splendid Star was already at a loss for words. At this point, even if a Warrior didn’t go up to tank, the Mages could still dish out damage without fear of the Dark Puppet Lord shifting aggro onto them.

Time ticked away. About two minutes later, the Dark Puppet Lord’s health fell below 60%.

The Dark Puppet Lord would enter phase two and start using Earthrend, which stunned all units within a 10-meter radius for nine seconds. Splendid Temple’s losses were so great precisely because they had previously fallen victim to this skill. Its effects were too powerful.

「Be careful of the Dark Puppet Lord’s skill!」Splendid Star warned. He was worried Nie Yan would get hit by Earthrender. However, what happened next completely blew him away.

The Dark Puppet Lord’s arm glowed red as it raised it into the air, preparing to smash the ground, when Nie Yan jumped into the air and delivered a flying kick to its neck. BANG! The powerful impact knocked it several steps back, interrupting Earthrender mid-cast.

“What!?” Splendid Star gasped. “W-what kind of attack is that? Is it a skill? It actually interrupted a Level 100 Variant Lord’s skill! Holy crap, that’s overpowered!”

Afterwards, the Dark Puppet Lord repeatedly attempted to use Earthrender. However, Nie Yan would always take advantage of the long cast time to deliver a well-placed kick, interrupting it every time.

Nie Yan’s timing was absolutely flawless.

Splendid Temple’s players looked on with dazed faces. Nie Yan had completely overturned their preconceived notions of a Thief.

Eight minutes later, the Mages never stopped their volley of spells. Combined with Nie Yan’s own explosive damage, the Dark Puppet Lord’s health finally reached zero. It never got to use Earthrender even once.

CRASH! The Dark Puppet Lord collapsed to the ground, crumpling into a large pile of rubble.

Even with the Dark Puppet Lord’s remains in front of them, the players of Splendid Temple couldn’t believe their eyes. This powerful boss that had completely decimated their ranks was killed just like that?

The difference was simply too stark. When Splendid Temple fought the Dark Puppet Lord, even with the Warriors locking it down, the Mages didn’t dare to go all out for fear of shifting aggro. As a result, even after attacking for a long time, they barely whittled its health down to 60% and at a heavy cost. Then, Earthrender came and wiped out most of their Warriors. With the frontline devastated, the Mages were even less willing to deal damage. In comparison, with Nie Yan aggroing the boss, the Mages had no such misgivings. No matter how fiercely they bombarded it, it would never aggro onto them simply because Nie Yan’s damage was just that high—more than 10 times that of any of them in fact. Not to mention the timing and placement of his attacks were flawless, each one managing to land at a crucial moment, preventing the Dark Puppet Lord from using Earthrender. This wasn’t something an ordinary player could accomplish. Perhaps Nie Yan was the only one who could take the Thief class to such heights.

With Nie Yan carrying most of the weight, the battle ended without any suspense, and the Dark Puppet Lord died a pitiful death.

Nie Yan collected the loot off the ground. Of the several pieces of equipment that dropped, only a ring caught his eye. It was a Special Item and precisely what he came here for!

This ring was silver white and covered in web-like engravings.

Description: Fire out a large web that entraps an enemy for two minutes. Cooldown: 30 minutes.

Restrictions: None

The web released from this ring was the same one released from Web Scrolls. It could render a target immobile, but they could still attack and cast magic.

Like other special items, the Cobweb Ring could be upgraded to enhance its properties. The resiliency of its web in particular would see significant improvements. This was exactly what Nie Yan was after, a super tough web to ensnare a target!

Aside from the Cobweb Ring, several pieces of Level 100 Dark Gold-grade equipment had also dropped. Such equipment couldn’t be more ordinary in Nie Yan’s eyes, with mountain loads of it in Asskickers United’s guild treasury. However, it was incredibly valuable to the players of Splendid Temple. Thinking for a bit, he decided to leave the rest of the loot to them. After all, he couldn’t allow their efforts to go unrewarded.

“I’ll be taking this Cobweb Ring. You guys can have the rest,” Nie Yan said.

Splendid Star wanted to refuse since Nie Yan killing the Dark Puppet Lord had allowed them to revive their fallen comrade and mitigate a significant amount of losses. This was already more than he could ask for. He didn’t even consider the equipment. However, at Nie Yan’s urging, he eventually relented and accepted this gesture of goodwill.

“I still have other things to do, so I’ll take my leave first.” Nie Yan bid Splendid Star farewell and dashed off.

Watching Nie Yan’s silhouette disappear behind a corner at the end of the street, a thought crossed Splendid Star’s mind. He made a decision. After returning from Puppet Castle, he would have Splendid Temple merge with Asskickers United. He believed himself a decent judge of character. Someone like Nie Yan definitely wouldn’t mistreat his own. They would have a brighter future joining Asskickers United. It was at least much better than remaining a small guild.

By this time, Nie Yan was already more than half a kilometer away. He naturally didn’t know what Splendid Star was thinking.

Nie Yan teleported back to Calore, where he paid a visit to Master Jewelcrafter Paget and had his Cobweb Ring upgraded to Dark Gold-grade. The toughness of the web it released was bolstered to far beyond what you would get from an ordinary Web Scroll. With it, he could easily capture flying mounts.

After finishing his preparations, Nie Yan was about to set out for Griffon Woodlands, when he received word from Guo Huai that Xu Yan’s team had been surrounded outside of Calore. He instantly knew who the culprits were. Who else could it be other than Zhao Shiyu, Fu Guangtao, Bai Jun, and their lot?

「Do you want me to dispatch some people to rescue them?」Guo Huai asked. He knew Xu Yan was Nie Yan’s classmate. So, after receiving the information, he immediately contacted Nie Yan first.

Nie Yan thought for a moment, then shook his head.「No need, I’ll deal with it myself. It just happens to be along the way.」

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